Connect with us

Lifestyle

My Top Five Tesla Motors Moments in 2014

Published

on

Each year, Tesla seems to top the previous year with developments and breaking news, and 2014 was no different. Here’s my list of top Tesla Motors moments in 2014:

Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk discussing the footprint of the Gigafactory and its energy needs.

Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk discussing the footprint of the Gigafactory and its energy needs.

5 – Did you say a $5 Billion Gigafactory? In late March, Tesla announced that four states were in the running for the $5 billion Gigafactory that would produce up to 50-GW-h of battery packs per year and 35-GW-h of energy storage packs per year by 2020. Fast forward to later this year and JB Straubel, CTO, Tesla Motors, said β€œWe’re a bit ahead of schedule in the Gigafactory than what we previously communicated. We felt it was important to go as fast as we possibly could and start some production operations in 2016.”

4 – So who won? I can’t leave you hanging, right? The winner of the Gigafactory sweepstakes was Reno, Nevada and it was announced in September 2014. The entire Nevada legislature voted to approve the land and tax incentives received by Tesla Motors. Of course, old media gnats took a swipe at the incentives that Tesla Motors received, based on the fact the company is only ten years old and not a bloated 20th century company, such as Boeing and Volkswagen.

Just this last year, VW received $230 million dollars from the state of Tennessee for plant expansion that creates 2,000 jobs, compared to the 5,000 jobs at the Gigafactory. Musk is big target. This is aΒ great, β€œInside Elon Musk’s 1.4 Gigafactory Score,” and it details the competition among states and Tesla Motor’s dealmaking approach.

3- Rising Tides Lifts All Boats, right? So how do you accelerate auto electrification in the industry? Just release your patents. That’s what Tesla Motors did on June 12, 2014 via the blog post, β€œAll Our Patent Are Belong to You,” and it created a big Internet, social media and media buzz for weeks. During the summer, there was conjecture that BMW was talking with Elon Musk, but nothing came out of it.

So why did they do it? From Musk’s blog post: β€œAt Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.”

2- Against It! It can’t be a completely groovy list, right? Back in March, the state of New Jersey blocked Tesla Motors from selling its cars via a non-elected Commissioner board that announced its ruling on Monday morning (public debate ran from 10:37 – 11:15) and voted to approve the ban later that day… Democracy and free markets, not in New Jersey…Michigan…Missouri, Texas, but I digress. The greed freaks (the state dealer association) and their political minions in New Jersey made sure no Tesla Motors retail stores could exist. The β€œhonorable” Governor Christie said there were no talks between the company and his office, and Christie felt it was an issue that the legislature could rectify.

Advertisement
-

1- All Things D The winner for 2014 is the β€œAll Things D” event and announcement of the Model S P85D (all-wheel drive) that provides the Silicon Valley automaker a new market segment to reach in the coming years and compete with the BMW i8’s price range or higher-end Jaguars and BMW sedans and coupes. Musk tweeted and the Internet followed all the way to southern California, where many witnessed numerous 3.2 second 0 to 60 nighttime demonstrations and driver assist features. Just reported today, these new electric beasts are out on the road in southern California.
Runner ups: The Model X delays vehicle deliveries until 3rd quarter 2015 and on April 24, 2014 the company announced its 100th supercharger.Β Also, the cross country Tesla Motors trip was a fun 72 hours or so.

Trying out the new superchargers located at Two Brothers Brewery, located in Aurora, IL, the 2nd largest city in Illinois.

Trying out the new superchargers located at Two Brothers Brewery, located in Aurora, IL, the 2nd largest city in Illinois.

**A favorite moment for this Model S driver was the installation of superchargers (photo right) at my favorite craft brewer the Chicago area, Two Brothers Brewery in Aurora.

So what will be the big Tesla Motors moment in 2015? A Model X surprise? Maybe Tesla sells more all-electric vehicles than Nissan’s Leaf? We will see.

"Grant Gerke wears his Model S on his sleeve and has been writing about Tesla for the last five years on numerous media sites. He has a bias towards plug-in vehicles and also writes about manufacturing software for Automation World magazine in Chicago. Find him at Teslarati

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.

Published

on

By

tesla cybercab with no manual controls showing a movie with two employees inside

Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.

Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.

Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.

Advertisement
-

The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.

Continue Reading

Lifestyle

Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory

Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.

Published

on

By

Tesla Cybertruck construction site

Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.

The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.

The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.

Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.

Advertisement
-
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years

Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.

Published

on

By

Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.

In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.

The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.

Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.

Advertisement
-

This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.

Continue Reading